Latex price drop hits farms, firms

Falling rubber prices have been hitting local farmers and businesses for over a year.

The price had fallen sharply from 25,000 VND per kilogram in the
Central Highlands in mid-2012 to 8,000-9,000 VND per kilogram on August
3, according to farmers.

Rubber market experts said the
falling price was following a global trend because large importers of
Vietnamese rubber such as China had high inventories, and supplies
were plentiful following harvests in Thailand and Malaysia .

In July, the average export price dropped by 13.7 percent against the
same period last year to 2,191 USD per tonne, according to the Ministry
of Industry and Trade.

This has had a negative impact on
exports, and in the first seven months of this year, volume fell by 0.1
percent to 500,000 tonnes and value plunged 17.6 percent to 1.22 billion
USD compared to the same period last year.

Rubber export
enterprises expected output to increase but prices to fall due to high
supply, according to the Vietnam Rubber Association.

Rubber
exports for this year were estimated to fall by 7.7 percent in volume
and 16.3 percent in value compared with 2012, said the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development./.